Before and After

I’ve discovered I like cooking. I’ve always had a fascination with cook books and cooking shows. I just never had the desire (or the encouragement) to try the stuff I found.

I loved reading the list of ingredients and the directions and I thought “I can do that!!”

So . . . . I’ve started trying some of the recipes that I find . . .

I made Shepherd’s Pie for St. Patrick’s Day. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I found a fairly uncomplicated recipe, gathered the ingredients and started cooking.

What I didn’t realize is that cooking is a messy job . . .

How could there be that much mess for a meal to feed two people!?

It took a while, but I got the mess cleaned up . . .

I still love to cook . . . I just need to find someone to do the dishes!!

Home Alone

That sounds a little ominous, doesn’t it?

No, Prince Charming hasn’t left for greener pastures. 

He’s at a training class for work to learn how to work on machines that are in the new clinics his company just acquired.

He left on Sunday and won’t be back until Friday night.

So . . . what’s a girl to do to keep herself occupied when she’s home alone for 5 days?

Yup, you guessed it . . . I’m cleaning!

Oh the excitement!!

 

Home Sweet Home

The Little House was built in 1923.  I’ve lived here since 1990.  From the minute the realtor showed it to me all those years ago, I knew it was my dream house.

I’ve lived here over 20 years now . . . some of them were happy years . . . some of them were not.  But through it all . . . it was my house!

And now that Prince Charming is here with me . . . it’s finally Home Sweet Home.

Wallflower

This is my 7th grade picture.  It’s one of Prince Charming’s favorite pictures of me.  This is how I looked when we he met me oh so many years ago.

Prince Charming wasn’t feeling well last weekend and I thought I’d change the profile picture on my Facebook account to this to cheer him up.  He says it always makes him smile when he sees this picture of me.

I thought I was a bit of a wallflower when I was in junior high and high school.  I wasn’t a star athlete, or on the honor roll, or one of those kids that was always in some sort of trouble.  I was always referred to as somebody’s sister, or somebody’s friend, or that girl going out with you-know-who.  Just another face in the crowd.

Imagine my surprise when I started reading the comments left on the post announcing the change of my profile picture . . . comments about remembering this cute little girl, or her cute smile, or some other memory from junior high . . . comments from people who I thought had no idea who I was way back then . . . and who I thought hardly remembered who I was when they “friended” me on Facebook.

Guess I wasn’t such a wallflower after all . . . and not only did I succeed in cheering up Prince Charming . . . I cheered myself up as well!

He’s Only Human

First, a little background info . . . in my previous life hearing the words “I need you to come here and see this” always struck fear in my heart.  It usually meant that one of the animals  had done something that I would have to clean up or that something had broken and a long complicated (read “expensive”) repair process about to start.

I took today as a vacation day to reward myself for surviving a rather hectic and very busy Christmas holiday week at work.  I’m downstairs enjoying my morning chocolate milk and surfing the internet when I hear the dreaded words from Prince Charming.

“Honey, I need you to come here and look at something.”

Me: (crap) . . . “Okay, I’m on my way.  Did the cat poop in the bath tub again?”

Him (amused): “No.  It’s okay, just come here.”

Me (double crap): Turning to Millie as I walk up the stairs “What did you guys do this time?”

Him (still amused and smiling): “We have a problem.”

Me (fairly panic stricken at this point): “What happened?”

Him (huge smile on his face): “Uh, I didn’t double check the setting on the trimmer before I started trimming my mustache.”

Me (finally seeing what he’s done and now I’m laughing): “Uh oh this isn’t good.”  (The middle of his mustache is pretty much gone at this point)

Him: “I don’t think I can salvage it.  I’m going to have to shave it. “

Me (still laughing): “Oh, honey, it’s okay.”

Him: “You’ve never seen me without a mustache and I didn’t want to just come downstairs and shock you.”

Me: “Well, I do appreciate that.”

He shaved it off and he’s already planning the schedule for when he can grow it back.  It’s going to be very cold here this week and he’s already noticing a huge difference in how his face feels without the mustache.  I think he was a little worried about my reaction . . . when I finally stopped laughing (and I did apologize for laughing) I got a good look at his newly clean shaven face and I told him that he’s still my Handsome Green Eyed Man and the decision to grow it back is entirely up to him.

It’s going to take some getting used to looking at his face without the mustache, but kissing him goodbye this morning without getting poked by mustache hair was kind of nice!

 

 

Life With Dogs

Prince Charming and I bought a new TV as a Christmas present to ourselves. Thank Heavens for Layaway! It’s a lovely 39 inch flat screen HDTV. I’m so excited that we will finally be able to read the little crawlers on the bottom of the screen. Of course the new TV will not fit on the entertainment center that I have now so we bought a new TV stand.

Our dilemma today is what to do with the old entertainment center. We don’t have room to keep the old one after we put together the new one. That’s when I got the bright idea to post a picture online to see if I could get rid of it.

I told you that story to tell you this story. When I got the camera out to take a picture of the entertainment center, I saw this

As soon as Millie saw I took Rocky’s picture she had to be included

See her sneaking behind Rocky?

Then a true miracle happened! I was able to get a picture of both of them at the same time without either one bothering the other!

Maybe they know Santa is watching? Boringly normal is back and we couldn’t be happier!

New Technology

Prince Charming got a promotion! He is going back to his first love – fixing machines. It’s actually more complicated than “just fixing machines” but I’ll explain that in a later post.

The promotion is a big deal for lots of reasons but the coolest thing is he needed a smart phone – and he chose an iPhone. Now I’m not a techie and have fought getting an iPhone because of the cost of the data plan. Much to my surprise (and Prince Charming’s delight) his company has a nice employee discount program that made my argument invalid.

So I have (to quote my brother) joined the 21st century and am the proud owner of an iPhone 4s. Yay me! Now I have to figure out how to work it. Thank heaven for my little iPod touch to help with the learning curve. Poor Prince Charming got an iPhone 5 and there isn’t a manual for it yet. We are going to be bugging my brother the Apple expert!

November Already?

Wow . . . it’s been four months since I posted anything here?!

Sorry, ya’ll . . . it’s been a busy summer . . . filled with trips here, there, and everywhere . . .

A Big Birthday for Prince Charming . . .

Time for Old Lady Testing for me . . .

Facing monsters and slaying them . . .

Yea, I know . . . you want details!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Prince Charming took me on a trip.  It was my birthday gift.  He did the planning.  He did the research.  He made the reservations.

All I had to do was pack!

He took me to Cleveland!  Cleveland?  Yes, Cleveland!

 

We visited the “A Christmas Story House”.

Anyone who knows and loves Ralphie knows this house!

 

We went to the beach . . .

okay, it wasn’t Florida or Myrtle Beach but it had waves, it had sun, it had sand . . . it was perfect!

 

We went to the Lighthouse in Fairport Harbor.

Yes, I walked at 69 steps to the top . . .

This is the view from the top!

See that red car?  That’s the Dogmobile.  I almost didn’t recognize it.

And you can’t go to Cleveland without going to the Rock Hall of Fame.

The Rock Hall was too cool for words . . .

 

We ate at fun places!

“The Dude Abides” at Melt Bar and Grilled.

 

Chicken Paprikash at Sterle’s Country House

It was three days away from work, away from the daily stress that was threatening to choke me . . . just me and Prince Charming (the doggies went to Puppy Camp for three days) . . . and it was heaven.

It was the best birthday present ever!

He Said, She Said

I’ve always said there are three sides to any story . . . or divorce.

There’s his side.

There’s her side.

And somewhere in the middle is what really happened.

In the beginning, I only heard Prince Charming’s side of the story.  How unhappy he was.  How lonely he was even with another person living in the house with him.  How any attempt at “fixing” the problems were met with either denial or resistance.  One person dominating the relationship and the other person doing everything they could to “keep peace.”  It seemed like Prince Charming’s marriage to The Queen is very similar to my marriage to XH.  Because I had been in that boat myself, I understood why it fell apart, what he went through during the marriage, and what he’s going through now in the divorce process.  But, like I said, there is more than one side to the story and I wondered could it really be that bad.

I believed Prince Charming but I still wanted to give The Queen the benefit of the doubt.

Then I had a chance to meet some of Prince Charming’s friends.  Some of his long-time friends.  Friends from high school.  Friends from the little town in Southern Ohio where he lived for 10 years before he moved to Virginia.  They told me that over the years, he had gotten more quiet and subdued.  They told me he seems much happier these days.  They’ve told me a little about some of the things they saw between Prince Charming and The Queen that made them wonder about the stability of the relationship.  The stories they told me were very similar to the stories that Prince Charming told me.  Their stories made me sad.

But, still, I wanted to give The Queen the benefit of the doubt.

Then when Prince Charming’s Dad passed away, I got to spend time with a lot of his extended family – cousins, aunts, uncles.  During the time they were here, I heard bits and pieces of the background story of Prince Charming’s marriage to The Queen.  More pieces to the puzzle started to fall into place.  It wasn’t a very pretty picture.  It was shaping up to be a very sad story.  My heart was starting to ache for him.

I was beginning to doubt that The Queen deserved the benefit of the doubt I had been giving her.

Then I had an opportunity to hear a conversation between Prince Charming and The Queen and the picture became crystal clear.  It was as bad as he told me.  It was probably worse!  The stories and the bits and pieces of information finally made sense.  She wants what she wants when she wants it and doesn’t care what how it inconveniences anyone.  It’s her way or no way . . . and any compromise is completely out of the question.  There was no warmth, no caring, no desire to understand anything but her point of view.

The cold authoritarian tone of her voice chilled me to the bone.  Her condescending attitude toward Prince Charming made me sad.  Her complete disregard for his feelings (or anyone’s feelings) made me angry.

It was sad to think that these two people had at one time loved each other enough to be married . . . and now they are complete strangers to each other.